Draw an Environments and Location Diagram
Shows the geographical location of building blocks and runtime environment specific details
The Environments and Location Diagram shows which architecture building blocks and solution building blocks are deployed at which locations as well as the blocks’ interactions.
With the help of the Environments & Location Diagram, you better understand the interaction between building blocks across different geographical locations. For this, you also add the locations of the users interacting with the aspired solution.
GOAL
Understand the interaction between building blocks across different geographical locations
PARTICIPANTS
Enterprise Architects, Developers, End Users
TIME NEEDED
30 - 60 minutes
PHASE
Deliver
Before You Start
Be prepared to work with the following artifacts you prepared earlier
Find the details of how to use these documents as input for this exercise in the steps laid out below.
Materials You Will Need
Templates for Download
Evolve Your Software Distribution Diagram Into the Environments and Location Diagram
Pick up the previously created Software Distribution Diagram and evolve it into the Environments and Location Diagram.
Consider the Solution Context Diagram, to pick up the existing IT systems and user’s interacting with the solution. Additionally, you can also look at the Baseline Solution Architecture Diagram.
Identify the Deployment Environments
Identify the deployment environments in which your building blocks are running. Add more details to the “landing zones” of the Software Distribution Diagram by explicitly naming the data center providers, the data center location and infrastructure specific details per “landing zone”.
Map the Solution Building Blocks
Map the solution building blocks, as defined in the Solution Realization Diagram, to the deployment environments.
You can also outline different deployment environments such as development, test and production.
The list of solution building blocks, which you will map to the locations and deployment environments, is taken from the Solution Realization Diagram.
Visualize the Relationships
Visualize the relationships of type request-response or information flow between the building blocks. This helps to understand network requirements.
See the Completed Example
Add technical details about the specific runtime environments of the Solution Building Blocks as well as network related details, in case they are relevant.
You're Done!
Congratulations! You may now move on to update your Architectural Decisions List and your Architecture Roadmap.